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CertGuard
CertGuard Administrator
USA
1212 Posts
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 Posted - 06/13/2007 : 13:15:45
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This is in response to Howard Dierking's Blog - Community Based Development - Let's Talk
I'm responding here so that I can get our readers involved in this conversation as well. I will be providing a link to this post on Howard Dierking's Blog as well.
I have read all the comments on Howard Blog, as well as comments on Trika's Blog and Deepak Kapoor's Blog
My Thoughts
Of all the points made about this subject, I have to agree with Deepak the most. The first of Deepak's statements that I'd like to elaborate on is:
quote:
Originally posted on Deepak Kapoor's Blog
"...creation of exam content by community must be moderated and channeled through strict review procedures. This is to ensure that candidates who will appear for exams will get the right value for money. Implementing a rigorous quality assurance process will require budgets, and this takes us back to the main issue here."
A point that I would like to add is the fact that involving a community would require years of preparation that would also cost alot of money that the current budget, obviously, doesn't have.
Questions have to be answered:
1. Who will head-up the community involvement? (You can't just let a community loose on the creation of an exam with nobody to corroborate the information) :Budget+
2. Once the information has been collected, who will weed out the numerous duplicate/redundant/worthless/pointless questions and make sure that only the relevant questions make it into the pool? :Budget+
3. Who is going to keep people from bickering about those numerous duplicate/redundant/worthless/pointless questions and make sure that people focus on what is relevant and not what they BELIEVE other's should know? (SMEs KNOW what others should know) :Budget+
4. Once a fraction of those questions have been processed into the pool, who will determine the Answers are worded so as to not create serious confusion amongst the candidates? :Budget+
5. Now the Questions and Answers have been collected, weeded, and sorted, who will approve them? :Budget+
Pain Point #1: The more hands that are in the pot, the harder it becomes to control the product. If you have a community of people writing questions, you're going to have a harder time regulating that community. :Budget+
Pain Point #2: It would cost more money in the long run to recall those (now displaced/disgruntled) SMEs and pay them more money to repair a problem that they had under control in the first place. :Budget+
As it stands now (you say) there are 5-7 SMEs that are writing exams in specific areas where they are the experts. From what I understand, those Experts are involved in many different aspects of creating an exam. To replace them with a community of people that don't have the knowledge that the SMEs have, you're asking for trouble.
It takes professionals to Plan Examinations. What you're asking for would be similar to asking College Students what they would like to see on next week's exam. It is simply something that cannot be done.
Back to Howard's Points
Community-based question development.
quote:
Originally Posted on Howard Dierking's Blog
1. Authors must be subject matter experts across the entire domain - this comes at a premium.
2. Authors must write a lot of questions each - this can lead to author burnout.
3. Authors must potentially write questions on topics that they are not all that passionate about.
4. The total number of items is all we get for an exam. If somebody comes out with a dump, the exam is exposed without much recourse (other than starting the whole process over again). Additionally, any questions that we kill (for whatever reason) are simply lost - there's no new questions to fill the spot - the result is simply a smaller question pool.
My responses
1. (a)Good. That proves to the Candidates that the Exams will be worthy of taking, versus someone figuring that a community of misfits pulled the questions out of their....
(b)In addition, this 'premium' ultimately comes at a lower cost that the potential losses that may acrue because of the overall lack of relevant knowledge of a community based system.
2. Highly Doubtful. Possible, yes, but doubtful. Writer's block would be a more feasible reach for an answer than Burnout. What do you think the burnout rate of 1000s of community members would be?
3. Passionate or not, they get paid to write those questions because they know the answers before the questions are asked.
4. Ok, I do not agree with their methods on "Sealing" an exam once it has been released and I do believe that questions should be replaced once they are removed (If not for security purposes, at least to keep the candidates honest), but I still do not agree that a community of under-qualified IT Professionals should be writing the exams. If more people want the ability to write the exams, then more people need to work on their qualifications of becoming Microsoft Certified Trainers.
Besides, there is already a community that does this. It's called the MCT Community.
According to Microsoft
quote:
Originally published on http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mct/default.mspx
Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs) are the premier technical and instructional experts in Microsoft products, technologies, and solutions. To ensure a superior learning experience for our customers, MCTs are the only individuals that Microsoft authorizes to deliver training that is based on Official Microsoft Learning Products or Microsoft Dynamics Learning Products for the MCT program.
The MCT community spans more than 140 countries and includes classroom and e-learning instructors, learning consultants, authors, conference presenters, user group leaders, and more. All are united by passion and talent for helping Microsoft customers and partners realize their full learning potential.
MCTs meet high initial and on-going certification requirements and enjoy access to many benefits. These include free access to the complete library of Official Microsoft Learning products; substantial discounts on exams, books, and Microsoft products; members-only newsgroups and online community resources; and invitations to exclusive events and programs.
If anyone thinks they can do the job of an MCT, they need to EARN the rights to be an MCT.
Read the MCT Program Guide AND the MCT Program Agreement. Then, follow the 4 basic steps to becoming and MCT
On top of all the 'question writing' that you're proposing, how do you propose that Microsoft handle this community? You are aware that Microsoft currently audits the MCT Community throughout the year to make sure they are in compliance with program requirements, correct? Talk about throwing a wrench in those gears.
Summary
MCTs (SMEs/Experts) = $$
Community = $$$
This community you're proposing would not be worth the time, the money, or the effort that you're proposing from Microsoft.
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Best of luck on your certifications and your career!
Robert Williams, CEO
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BosonMichael
CertWizard
USA
199 Posts
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Posted - 06/13/2007 : 14:57:53
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| There's an art to creating a good question. As someone who is intimately involved with practice exam creation, I can say definitively that MOST techs don't know how to write a good question. I shudder to think what would be created if the community-at-large were to create exam questions. It simply wouldn't work well. CompTIA is living proof. Their exams are written by "supposed" SMEs (their only qualification seems to be passing the previous version of the exam), who travel on their own dime and are paid very little in order to create ambiguous and/or poor-quality questions. I'd hope Microsoft isn't considering following this same path. |
BosonMichael
MCSE+I, MCSE: Security, MCDST, MCDBA, OCP, CCNP, CCDP, CNE, SCSA, Security+, Linux+, Server+, Network+, A+
Served proudly, US Army, 98C Intelligence Analyst, '89-'92 |
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CertGuard
CertGuard Administrator
USA
1212 Posts
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Posted - 06/13/2007 : 16:29:52
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I'll have to admit, Howard's proposal seemed to be 'well thought out' at first, but once I really started researching/thinking about the intricacies of exam writing, MCT qualifications, and the overall level of knowledge of the 'contributing' community, I saw the problems that could potentially be caused from other angles.
I honestly don't believe that Howard completely thought it out from both angles and that his reasoning is biased. I don't fault him for it, I've done it plenty of times myself, but I try not to do it as offen anymore. One of life's lessons taught me that I needed to approach issues from every possible angle before I presented it. |
Best of luck on your certifications and your career!
Robert Williams, CEO
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BosonMichael
CertWizard
USA
199 Posts
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Posted - 06/13/2007 : 16:45:15
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| I didn't post my reply to his blog; feel free to pass along my thoughts to his blog, or incorporate them into your own postings. |
BosonMichael
MCSE+I, MCSE: Security, MCDST, MCDBA, OCP, CCNP, CCDP, CNE, SCSA, Security+, Linux+, Server+, Network+, A+
Served proudly, US Army, 98C Intelligence Analyst, '89-'92 |
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CertGuard
CertGuard Administrator
USA
1212 Posts
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Posted - 06/13/2007 : 16:58:03
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| Thanks Michael, I may do that. You have brought up a good point about the quality of CompTIAs exams. |
Best of luck on your certifications and your career!
Robert Williams, CEO
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BosonMichael
CertWizard
USA
199 Posts
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Posted - 06/13/2007 : 17:05:33
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| Just so nobody misunderstands - I think CompTIA certifications are good to get. However, the quality of their questions leaves something to be desired. |
BosonMichael
MCSE+I, MCSE: Security, MCDST, MCDBA, OCP, CCNP, CCDP, CNE, SCSA, Security+, Linux+, Server+, Network+, A+
Served proudly, US Army, 98C Intelligence Analyst, '89-'92 |
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rev
CertNovice
USA
19 Posts
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Posted - 07/09/2007 : 05:58:44
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Item creation is a pain in the nect ot say the least. I know, I've done it. As for having a community based developmen, its simple, if you really want to do it you cna apply for a contracted position at one of teo companies and do it.
Also - you linked this thread from the discussion at Trika's blog.....why? It has nothign to do with this thread, either that or I can't read. |
.rev askthemct.com
mcp.mcdst.mcsa.mcsas.mcsam.mcse.mcses.mcsem.mcdba.mcts-sql.mcts-vista.mcitp-dba.mcitp-est
mcitp-cst.mct.cst.cnst.cws.a+(itt/rst/dt).network+.i-net+.server+.e-biz+.project+.security+ |
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Cerebrus
CertGuard Administrator
India
125 Posts
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Posted - 07/09/2007 : 10:50:27
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Hi Rev,
Nice to see you expressing your opinion here.
I linked this thread on Trika's blog, because "Chance" and some others were discussing ways of improving the current testing scenario. I also linked Howard Dierking's blog. |
C.T.O
CertGuard, Inc.
MCP, MCAD, MCSD.NET
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rev
CertNovice
USA
19 Posts
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Posted - 07/09/2007 : 12:47:44
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| Ok I get that now. As for seeing my opinion, trust me when I say I have only scratched the surfaced of what I thought about the Prometric change. I'm pretty spent from talking about it so much, though I was happy to see all the commentso n Trika's blog when she finally put the notice up. |
.rev askthemct.com
mcp.mcdst.mcsa.mcsas.mcsam.mcse.mcses.mcsem.mcdba.mcts-sql.mcts-vista.mcitp-dba.mcitp-est
mcitp-cst.mct.cst.cnst.cws.a+(itt/rst/dt).network+.i-net+.server+.e-biz+.project+.security+ |
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CertGuard
CertGuard Administrator
USA
1212 Posts
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Posted - 07/10/2007 : 20:18:26
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| rev, I for one am interested in what you have to say about it. I'm sure I will find them eventually, but you're more than welcome to post links to any other pages that you've already expressed your opinion on, if that would reduce the burden of having to rehash what you've already discussed. |
Best of luck on your certifications and your career!
Robert Williams, CEO
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rev
CertNovice
USA
19 Posts
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Posted - 07/10/2007 : 20:40:04
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| I can't most of what I've said has been in either personal emails to and from the GM of MSL or in the MCT Private Community so you wont find them. |
.rev askthemct.com
mcp.mcdst.mcsa.mcsas.mcsam.mcse.mcses.mcsem.mcdba.mcts-sql.mcts-vista.mcitp-dba.mcitp-est
mcitp-cst.mct.cst.cnst.cws.a+(itt/rst/dt).network+.i-net+.server+.e-biz+.project+.security+ |
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CertGuard
CertGuard Administrator
USA
1212 Posts
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Posted - 07/10/2007 : 20:47:48
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 gotcha. Thanks. |
Best of luck on your certifications and your career!
Robert Williams, CEO
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Re: Community Based Development
